Summer Bounty: Rosemary Saddleback Potatoes, Baba Ghanouj, Squash Gratin

Oh yes, I've been busy in the kitchen! Between my garden and my CSA share the past couple weeks, there's been lots of food to goad me into trying new recipes.

From my CSA:

• blue potatoes
• a medium aubergine (eggplant)
  
• a big green zucchini squash grown especially for its blossoms
  
• potatoes (plain ol' beige ones)
• hardneck garlic

From my garden:

• yellow summer squash
• heirloom (Stupice) tomatoes
  
• rosemary
  
• thyme
• oregano
  
• parsley

Things that went to waste: shiso and spearmint (well, I did muddle a little of the spearmint in some lemonade).

There were several salads, of course, but you've seen enough of those. My real triumphs were Rosemary Saddleback Potatoes and Baba Ghanouj, both from In Season: Cooking with Vegetables and Fruits.

The Rosemary Saddleback Potatoes were delicious, and oh so simple. Slice the potatoes almost all the way through, insert sprigs of rosemary between the slices, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with kosher salt, bake. My only complaint was that it took about 45 minutes to bake. Patience is not one of my virtues!

The Baba Ghanouj idea came to me as soon as I had my lovely aubergine in hand. It went wonderfully with warm, fresh naan which I made from my beloved ABinFive. I bet their grilled flatbread would be even better!

Grill or broil your eggplant/aubergine* until slightly charred. It should be quite soft, so you may need to cook it a bit longer on a lower setting. Let cool, halve, peel, and toss into a food processor. Add the zest and juice from half a lemon, a garlic clove (two if you love garlic), 2 T. tahini (sesame paste), 1 tsp. olive oil, 1 tsp. kosher salt, a pinch of cumin and/or chile powder (go easy, you can always add more).

Since I had a lot of squash and potatoes on my hands, I made two similar dishes that incorporated both. First up, Summer Squash Gratin from 101 Cookbooks (pictured below). A week later I made Herbed Summer Squash and Potato Torte from Smitten Kitchen. They were both fantastic, and even better when reheated in the oven for maximum crispness of the thinly-sliced potatoes. I think the Smitten Kitchen version is slightly less time-consuming, other than that I couldn't choose a favorite. I'd recommend a mandoline or food processor with slicing blade, in the interest of saving time and your fingers as well as ease of achieving uniform-sized slices.

*My aubergine was rather small, you may find it necessary to increase the cooking time and amount of ingredients if yours are larger.